Can Ya Feel The Wind Already?

Yep, only a couple of days away from Corpus so time to fire up the discussion again. Starting with 4.5s, you don't have to go far down the draw to find the first compelling potential matchup and that would be a possible 2nd round showdown between Houston's own Greg Schmucker and Kris Knutson. Kris's unique style could be quite a handful if the conditions are on the windy side. If Greg shows I would think he should be able to come out on top if he stays patient. I am aware that Kris has had his number in the past but I believe it has been quite a while since they have last played. Brian Goldberg also will have his hands full with a tough 1st round draw against Leonardo Solis. Hopefully Brian can give him a tough fight but I would have to go with Leonardo. As someone pointed out, Kallus should be able to come out the victor against his 1st round opponent BYE but then will have to face the winner of two local Corpus guys. If there is even a hint of breeze, I am going with the Corpus guy. Bradley Nash, John Griffin, Ruben Vargas, and Richard Patton round out the Houston contigent and all would appear to have winnable 1st round matchups. Not saying they should win, just that the opponent's names should not inspire fear either. I know there will probably be at least 1 unknown and unseeded player who makes his way very deep but looking at the draw as it stands, I would go with Solis and Rodriguez in 1 semis & Sanchez and Casas in the other with Rodriguez taking home his 3rd Major Zone of the Year.

In 5.0, all but 1 of the 7 players are Houston area guys. The only compelling 1st round match up will be between Tim Green and Reggie Black as they both play well in the typical Corpus Conditions. Tim should come through in this one and should then win the tournament over the winner of the match between Herb Morton and Joe Schornick. From what I have heard, Tim has pretty much owned the Corpus tournament in the past at 4.0s, 4.5s, and 5.0s. Look for the domination to continue.

And finally, yes there will be some 4.0s going at it as well. Will Foad be able to break the streak of 1st round Major Zone exits? Will he fight his way through the consolation draw? Will anyone else try to comment on 4.0s since I obviously cant'? We shall see.

What's it take to get a seed these days?

Looks like final competitor list are up now for Corpus since the seeds are already posted. Right off the bat it stands out that the 5.0s are once again getting screwed because of the small draw sizes. Herb Morton & Reggie Black get the only 2 seeds since there are only 7 players, leaving Tim Green and Joe Schornick out in the cold. Based on his history, Tim Green should be the top seed though I know he does not currently have the points. Does anyone know how many seeds the computer spits out per 8 spots in the draw? Based on the 5.0s it is 2. Based on the 4.5 and 4.0 draws it is only 1 per 8. I think tournament directors need to either be willing to add additional seeds based on knowledge of players or perhaps go to masters-cup round robin format for Major Zone draws of 8 or less. 5.0 tournament tennis is doomed to never grow in terms of draw sizes as long as the draws keep working out this way. 4.5 is a bit better as there are 26 guys signed up and thus 4 seeds. Even here I would say the seeds should be extended to at least 6 to catch a couple of other guys that are ranked right around the top 10 and basically one or two spots behind the #4 seed. This way, those guys at least get one of the 1st round byes and perhaps don't have to waste a full day of vacation to get down to Corpus for a Friday morning match. Maybe I am wrong but it seemed to me that in the past, tournament directors had discretion to increase the number of seeds regardless of the draw size. I don't see what is wrong with having 2 seeds for every 8 spots, meaning there should be 8 seeds for the 4.5s and up to 16 seeds for the 4.0s. In the atp, there are 32 seeds in the Grand Slam draws of 128 so 1 for every 4. Even here at River Oaks, there were 8 seeds for a 32 draw. That is the fair ratio if you ask me.

New Week, New Discussion Thread, Same old crap....

Since we were past 100 posts again on the last thread I went ahead and started a new one. Still nothing new to talk about other than the approaching deadline for registering for the Corpus Christi Hurricane Tennis Challenge (or Buc Days Major Zone as it is also known). With nothing more to add at the moment, I will turn it over to you guys for a new round of bashing each other...well, more like bashing the same 2 or 3 people over and over again but you know what I mean. Have at it.

You guys bored or what? I am...as you will soon read.

These are dark times in deed when the talk turns to the rumored outcome of a practice match. Perhaps the start of a new discussion stream can turn the tide. Still nothing to talk of on the tourney scene specifically but it is interesting that it seems we now have some valley guys coming to this blog to supplement the out-of-towners that drop in from Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. All are welcome of course, though only Houston-based opinions should be viewed as having any relevance (Joking...kind of...).

Had the opportunity to catch some of the golf tourney at Redstone this weekend and it amazes me that professional golfers out-earn professional tennis players by something like 5X. There will be well over a 100 golfers between the US and European golf tours that make over $1 million in prize money this year. There will probably be around 10 ATP players that make more than that this year. The 15th place finisher at the Shell golf tournament pocketed $97,000. The WINNER of next week's River Oaks tennis tournament will pocket $63,000. The winner of the Nationwide minor league golf circuit event this weekend won $108,000. The winner of the typical challenger-level tennis event pockets well under $10,000. What makes this so sad to me is that the average professional tennis player probably practice 3 or 4 hours per day (when not in a tournament) and spend 1 - 2 additional hours in the gym. A professional golfer spends his time between tournaments eating and fattening up before the next event. None of them other than Tiger Woods even remotely resembles an athlete. Is it fair to call them athletes? I guess, in the most generous use of the term. Just a random thought but it just really struck me how as a general rule they just look like any other average fat guy off the street wearing a pair of slacks and a short sleeve polo shirt. When you see a professional tennis player at a tournament it is usually pretty damn easy to tell them apart from the average guys there as spectators, even if you have never seen them before or even heard of them. I am thankful that I am not a golfer.